KT offers reverse pitches to pick startup partners

KT Corp. has offered reverse pitches for South Korean artificial intelligence and technology startups to cooperate in the areas where it lacks in technology.

On Thursday, the country’s largest telecom service provider made presentations to 12 startups from the sectors of AI, cloud computing, mobility and quantum computing, addressing the ideas and technologies it wants to develop jointly with them.

In a reverse pitching set-up, a large company calls meetings with startups and suggests cooperation in certain areas. Based on the proposals, startups develop a business prototype or demonstrate a proof of concept (POC).

KT will assess them and decide to bring some of the ideas to life.

The 12 startups invited to the reverse pitching event, dubbed “BM Around,” include four AI companies DeepNatural, GenGenAI, Laivdata, and Otuo; cloud technology firm Silcroad Soft; quantum computing operating system developer SQK; and mobility technology company Geosoft.

Logistics startup O2Pluss, edtech startup Mirror, proptech platform OneCupPRO, pet care app Pevo and Internet of Things company ThingsNet are also among the attendants.

They are housed within the Open Innovation Center in KT’s office building in Pangyo, known as the Silicon Valley of Korea.

KT’s technology arms such as KT Cloud Co., KT Estate Co. and e-book platform Millie Seojae Co. joined the reverse pitching event, along with KT’s in-house IT business divisions.

The telecom giant picked Tap Angel Partners as a startup accelerator to offer investor relations, mentoring and other nurturing programs to the companies it may form partnerships with. The venture capital company will also help them develop successful proofs of concept.

KT will expand its reverse pitching program to encompass promising startups in new technology realms such as generative AI technology and form strategy partnerships with them.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article